1. Field
The invention relates to structures for representing full color images, animation, 3D graphics and other visual effects, and particularly to structures comprising a plurality of tile elements which reflect or refract light and the color reflection sources which are optionally organized in conjunction with or tracked and cataloged to be reflected by said array, to construct said visual effects.
2. Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,173,985, “Method of Reflection for Producing a Pleasing Image”, by Clifford A. Wendel, 1965, describes a method of producing a grey scale image on a screen by reflecting a light source onto a translucent screen using a faceted mirror surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,554, “Method and Apparatus for Providing a Variable Multiple Image Visual Effect”, by James Seawright, 1987, describes an array of mirrors differentially angled so as to all reflect the viewer's own face or eye, back to himself, to present multiple identical self reflections to the viewer.
Published patent application Ser. No. 11/570,589, “Sculptural Imaging With Optical Tiles”, by Roderick Quin, 2008, uses arrays of shaded tiles to presents images directly to the viewer.
Visual artist Daniel Rozin in 2003 produced an art installation called “Broken Red Mirror”, in which the large shards of a broken mirror were angled to reflectively reconstruct a torn photograph spread on a wall behind the viewer of the mirror shards.
An article published in 2007 on the inhabitat.com web site describes an articulated mirror array built by Adam Somlai-Fischer and Bengt Sjolen, consisting of several dozen old car side mirrors that could be tilted up or down under software control to present changing reflective patterns and rough images: http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/08/11/aleph-mirror-environmental-art/